AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ARKONA — “AGE OF CAPRICORN”

 Premieres  9 Responses »
Dec 102019
 

 

Three years ago we had the privilege of premiering a complete stream of Lunaris, the sixth album by the long-running Polish black metal band Arkona. Today we’re fortunate to host the premiere of Arkona‘s seventh album, Age of Capricorn, in a career that’s now more than a quarter-century long. If this were to become a tradition, we would be quite happy, because Arkona have once again demonstrated, in astonishing fashion, that the fires which set them ablaze so long ago have not diminished in the least, but seem to be reaching new heights of extravagance

The band’s particular formulation of black metal is by now well-established, and their devotion to it is unswerving. Their music, as manifested so powerfully in this new record, set for release on December 13th by Debemur Morti Productions, disdains the mundane and the commonplace. Delivered with dominating supremacy, it combines unchecked ferocity, emotionally powerful melody, and an atmosphere of terrible, otherworldly grandeur and shattering bleakness. It seems to embrace death and to manifest visions of what lies beyond the pathetic scrabbling of daily existence. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ARKONA, THE SPIRIT, MARA, SVARTTJERN, DECOHERENCE, GOAT TERROR

 SHADES OF BLACK  No Responses »
Nov 102019
 


Arkona

 

Just a few opening notes:

First, all of the following songs are the first advance tracks from forthcoming albums, The opening four in today’s collection are absolutely wild, and the first three of those put me in mind of the kind of full-throttle, all-enveloping extravagance that often forms the closing movement of a classical symphony.

Second, today I’m just launching immediately into thoughts about the songs I picked, and providing the details about the bands and the releases only after that.

Third, I’m so far behind in mentioning recently released full albums from the black realms that I have in mind another one of these columns tomorrow, which won’t include full reviews of those albums but only teasers. Because that won’t take me as much time, there’s a greater likelihood I’ll be able to follow through. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: ARKONA, PUTRASCENSION, KAWIR, REVENANT MARQUIS

 SHADES OF BLACK  5 Responses »
Nov 042019
 

 

This column is a day late, shorter than I’d planned, and written more hurriedly than I would like. Yesterday was full of personal obstacles to working on this, and I’ve got to leave home at an early hour this morning for a one-hour drive to the county courthouse because I’ve been summoned for jury duty. Three cheers for democracy!

It’s unlikely I’ll be put on the jury, but I have a feeling I’ll be stuck in the courthouse all day, which will play havoc with getting anything else done for NCS today other than this post and a premiere/review that I managed to finish last night.

ARKONA

If you’re not a fan of the Polish band Arkona it must be because you’ve never heard their music (even though they’ve been around since ’93) or you just don’t like black metal. I can’t think of a third reason. Their new album (the seventh of their career), Age of Capricorn, is one of my most anticipated releases of this fall/winter. It’s coming out December 13th via Debemur Morti Productions. Continue reading »

14 DAYS AND COUNTING (PLUS NEW MUSIC FROM ARKONA)

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  No Responses »
Dec 172017
 

 

On Friday night I returned to Seattle after a very nice vacation that lasted nearly two weeks. Thanks to the efforts of my NCS writer comrades, I was able to keep my promise to my spouse that I wouldn’t blog (much) while on vacation. And as a further bonus, the loris horde didn’t burn the NCS compound to the ground while I was gone, though I did notice what seem to be the bones of a few small children strewn behind their barbed-wire enclosure that weren’t there when I left. That seems like a fair price to pay if it avoided an assault on our headquarters.

As I try to get my head back in the game, I count 14 days remaining in 2017, and I thought I’d give you a preview of what lies ahead at NCS before the year dies and we cremate its remains. And because I detest posting anything here that doesn’t include music, I’m throwing in one new song after that. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2016’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 14): KRATER, ULTAR, ARKONA, SIMULACRO, DJEVEL, GAEREA

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2016  6 Responses »
Jan 202017
 

 

I’ve let two days go by without a further installment of our Most Infectious Song list, because my time is not wholly within my control, but whose is? To make up for lost time, I’m doubling up on the size of today’s edition.

But the goal of catching up isn’t the only explanation. As I pondered which songs to roll out today, these six seemed to step forward and proclaim “We belong together”. When you hear them one after another perhaps you’ll perceive the connections between them as I did, and if you do, perhaps you should seek psychiatric care. (The preceding songs on this list can be seen here.)

KRATER

The first track today is “Flammen im Vakuum“, and it comes packaged with a very well-produced video by Melanie Werner that I enjoy watching almost as much as I enjoy the song. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): ARKONA — “LUNARIS”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Nov 042016
 

arkona-lunaris

 

Last month we were fortunate to bring you premieres of two songs from an album we are very excited about, and now we bring you a full stream of the entire album. Entitled Lunaris, it’s the sixth full-length by the Polish black metal band Arkona, and Debemur Morti Productions is releasing it today.

In writing about one of our previous song premieres, I summed up the music as mystical, majestic, and marauding, and those adjectives hold true for the album as a whole. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: ARKONA — “ŚMIERĆ I ODRODZENIE”

 Premieres  4 Responses »
Oct 262016
 

arkona-lunaris

 

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of premiering a video for a song from Lunaris, the new album by the Polish black metal band Arkona, and today we have the chance to bring you a second song from the album in advance of its November 4 release by Debemur Morti Productions. This one is named “Śmierć i odrodzenie” (death and rebirth).

For those who missed our earlier premiere and may not be familiar with Arkona, they must be considered among the pioneers of Polish black metal, with demos that date back to 1994 and a first album (Imperium) that was released in 1996. Lunaris is the band’s sixth full-length in that long career, and the second one following a span between 2003 and 2014 when the band only participated in a few splits. This is their first album on the Debemur Morti label. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: ARKONA — “ZIEMIA”

 Premieres  17 Responses »
Oct 132016
 

arkona-lunaris

 

We have three months left in 2016, and there are still can’t-miss releases on the horizon before we reach New Year’s Day. Judging by the stunning new song you’re about to hear, we’re compelled to say that the new album Lunaris by the long-running Polish band Arkona will be one of these. The album is set for release on November 4 by Debemur Morti Productions, and the name of the song is “Ziemia“.

Arkona must be considered among the pioneers of Polish black metal, with demos that date back to 1994 and a debut album (Imperium) released in 1996. Lunaris is the band’s sixth album in that long career, and the second following a span between 2003 and 2014 when the band only participated in a few splits. This is their first album on the Debemur Morti label. Continue reading »

ARKONA ART (“YAV”)

 Eye-Catchers, Metal News  9 Responses »
Mar 022014
 

Masha Scream, photo by Greg Shanta

Russia’s Arkona have completed a new album named Yav. It will be released on April 25. I’m very interested in hearing it, not only because I’ve enjoyed previous recordings but also because I’ve enjoyed the hell out of the two live Arkona performances I’ve seen so far in Seattle. The frontwoman Masha Scream is a force of nature on stage, in addition to the fact that  she has a great dual voice (both harsh and clean).

I’ve read that for the new album she wrote almost all of the music and almost all of the lyrics, which was the first time it dawned on me that her role in Arkona goes well beyond that of vocalist and magnetic stage presence. But this post actually isn’t about her, or anyone else in the band. It’s about Gyula Havancsák, the Hungarian artist who created the artwork for Yav.

In addition to creating the album cover, which you will see in a minute, he also created pieces for each of the album’s 9 songs. Beginning last week, Arkona began posting the song illustrations on their Facebook page, along with poetic translations of the Russian lyrics into English. So far, five of the illustrations have appeared, and they’re very cool. You can see them next, along with the album cover. To hear a teaser of the new music, go to this location. Continue reading »

PERCIVAL SCHUTTENBACH: “WODNIK”

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Sep 122013
 

I don’t have anything planned for today other than the completion of DGR’s raunchy challenge, which has been sitting at the top of the site for about 4 1/2 hours. I did other things last night and have to be involved in non-blog things this morning. Sorry about that. There will be something else by early afternoon, Pacific time.

Until then, let me leave you with a song named “Wodnik” by a Polish band named Percival Schuttenbach. When I have more time I’ll have to research where that name came from. The song will appear on an album entitled Svantevit, which will be released on September 21. I picked the song for four reasons. First, because we haven’t had any folk metal on the site for a long time. Second, because the song includes guest vocals by Maria “Masha Scream” Arkhipova from Arkona, of whom I am a fan.

Third, because I like the song (and yes, there really is a song in the video I’m embedding below, you just have to wait for it). Fourth, because it reminds me again that just about anything sung in a Slavic language automatically sounds more metal to my American ears.

Listen after the jump. See you again later today. Continue reading »

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